Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Prayer walking

Tonight has been very quiet, we took one guy home and talked with a few others. I was sitting on a wall when some random girl walked by and tweaked my nipples!

We also met a guy who we had taken home last week, it was great to see him in a good state. This isn't why we do what we do but it was lovely that he was so grateful and warm towards us.

We then took a walk out along the harbour wall to pray, from there we could see the whole of the bay of San Antonio. It was beautiful and peaceful and great place to pray at 4 in the morning. You walk out on this lovely wooden walkway with lights stretching the whole way along out into the darkness. I enjoyed the picture it presented me with, that sense of light piercing darkness, walking in the light yet being surrounded by darkness. The walkway is built on rocks that also just spoke to me about being on a firm foundation. Simple analogies yet when we engage with prayer in a physical way it can seem so much more alive.

I am a great believer in prayer walking, the visual stimuli inspires your prayers. Psyscologists say that many of us process things in one of three ways. we are either Audio, Visual or Kinesthetic. Audio people process through sound, you will often hear these people use phrases like "that sounds good" or "I like the sound of that". Visual people process by picturing things, they will often say "I can see how that would work" or "I am struggling to picture it", kinesthetic people will process by how something feels, they will say "this feels right" or "I have a bad feeling about this".

These are helpful tools for prayer, I am visual and probably a little kinesthetic, so I am more comfortable when I can see something and when it feels right. Also helpful when you work in a team or are in a relationship if you know how people process information it helps you deal with them better. Kinesthetic people find it harder to make an instant decision they need to feel it, which means they need time to process more than an audio or visual person.

Helpful stuff.

Walking can provide good stimuli for all three and make your prayer life a little more interesting. The walk out on the harbour felt good warm gentle breeze, the sound of the waves gently lapping the rocks was very soothing and the sights around us where very inspiring.